Partnership

UMass Worcester Office of Faculty Affairs

The UMass Worcester Office of Faculty Affairs has implemented special programs and initiatives for the advancement and leadership of women and diversity that has continuously been expanding since 2005 under the direction of Dr. Judith K. Ockene, Associate Vice Provost for Gender & Equity, Professor of Medicine, Chief of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, and more recently under the direction of Dr. Luanne Thorndyke, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, and the support of Dr. Robert Milner, Associate Vice Provost of Professional Development, Dr. Deborah Plummer, Associate Vice Chancellor of Diversity and Equal Opportunity, Dr. Jeroan Allison, Associate Vice Provost for Health Disparities, and Dr. Patricia Franklin, Associate Professor of Orthopedics & Physical Rehabilitation and Family Medicine & Community Health.

The impact of these initiatives, especially the FADL, is reflected in the higher percentage of female full professors in sciences when compared to the national average. The UMW programs have succeeded in improving the structure and increasing the composition in the basic research departments, but even with composition approaching parity, issues of high-level recruitment, recognition and culture for women exist.

The UMass Lowell Center for Women and Work

The UMass Lowell Center for Women and Work has a mission of interdisciplinary academic research coupled with education and practice focused on workplace equality and gender issues. Under the leadership of Professors Meg Bond and Paula Rayman, CWW has a significant history of supporting research specifically on women in science and technology, including two NSF-funded projects: “Project TechForce,” which examined women and men in information technology workplaces (Rayman & Kuhn, 2001-04), and “Working W.I.S.E.,” a multi-generational and interdisciplinary working conference on women in STEM fields that brought together over 100 participants from academia, business, government, and NGO’s (Rayman, Bond, & Brunette, 2006-09). Learn more about the Working Wise Project

The two campuses bring complementary skills to this effort, including leadership in gender studies and in behavioral change studies, qualitative research, and successful recent initiatives to advance women in senior and leadership roles. Creating new metrics and tools for the assessment of subtle biases, often referred to as micro-inequities, are necessary to better understand faculty experiences as they relate to advancement and retention.